UPDATE: The launch of the Contour Park Kickstarter campaign has encountered a last-minute issue and has been postponed.
*************************
Several passions are colliding for former city councillor Mike Salisbury as he looks to ensure a piece of the Paris-Galt Moraine is preserved well into the future, courtesy of Canadian copyright laws.
He’s the artist behind plans for Contour Park, a stone fence-style sculpture proposed to snake through an acre of land in the area of Maltby Road and Gordon Street in the city’s south end.
The site sits between a protected wooded area and lands to be developed with residences, roads and retail opportunities in the coming years as part of the Clair-Maltby secondary plan.
“I’m blending my background in landscape architecture and my background in politics. I’m putting them together and I couldn’t be happier,” said Salisbury, who stepped away from politics last fall in order to focus on his art. “And it saves a really cool piece of land from being encroached upon in the future.”
The project was already in the works when Salisbury learned of Alberta artist Peter von Tiesenhausen, who created a piece of art on his land and used Canada’s copyright laws in 1996 to stop an oil pipeline from being run through his property.
As explained on the government of Canada website, most artworks are automatically protected by copyright laws until 70 years after the artist’s death.
“You’d have a fight on your hands to pull it out of commission at that point,” Salisbury said of what happens once that protection expires, adding he hopes the sculpture is around for generations “or more."
Salisbury plans to launch a Kickstarter campaign on May 9, with the goal of raising at least $39,000 to fund the project’s first of three phases, but he hopes there is enough public support to see the entire sculpture completed without additional campaigns needed.
In return for donations, people will receive partial ownership of the sculpture, with unique GPS coordinates provided so they can visit their piece.
“It’s people actually putting their money where their mouth’s at. … This is civil action, ” said Salisbury. “If people feel disenfranchised with what’s going on with the Green Belt, for instance, they can participate in this and not just get a good feeling and a piece of art out of the deal, but make a symbolic stand and build that sense of passion and activism that is needed when you disagree about things that are life and death.”
The property is owned by the Foundation for the Support of Medical International Training, which has granted Salisbury permission to create the sculpture and sell its pieces via the Kickstarter campaign.
Despite its rolling topography, at one point the site was actively farmed. That came to an end several years ago and the property is now home to naturally growing trees and other vegetation.
Much of the stone to be used in the sculpture sits in piles around the property, having been moved out of the way to aid its former agricultural use.
“Within one generation this will dramatically change into a really different landscape (as the trees grow),” said Salisbury, explaining the sculpture will curve around hills and enhance snow collection.
“It’s also a way, I think, of moving toward reconciliation in terms of moving clear indicators of a colonial linear, square mindset and repositioning them in a manner that actually accentuates the natural function of the land.”
Funds raised through the campaign will be used to pay for equipment and materials needed for the sculpture, Salisbury said, as well as cover lunches and/or other social events for donors who want to pitch in physically as well.
Depending on the amount raised, the artist said he may receive some financial compensation but he said the project’s expenses come first.
“This is a piece I pitched them on,” Salisbury said. “I got really excited when I conceived it and they got really excited when I explained it to them.”
The former politician said he became interested in the property about three years ago, while serving on city council. He received a tour of the area while the Clair-Maltby secondary plan was being created to guide future development.
“I saw a piece of property I never expected existed in this city … and just fell in love with it,” he explained. “I’ve been actively working out the details for this to come about for about a year.”
